2-year-old covered in feces found alone at playground; grandmother arrested

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A 51-year-old Columbus woman was arrested Sunday after her 2-year-old grandson was found wandering around a playground covered in feces. (Columbus Police Dept.)

COLUMBUS, Ind. – A 51-year-old grandmother has been charged after Indiana officers found her 2-year-old grandson wandering around an indoor playground by himself, his hands covered in feces, police said.

Columbus police officers were called to the Commons Mall playground in Columbus, Indiana, around 4:40 p.m. Sunday, according to WXIN. A woman told them she’d seen the child playing on the playground unsupervised.

The woman told police she picked him up and tried to find a parent or guardian.

When she and others at the mall couldn’t locate a guardian, the caller and another parent cleaned the child up and changed his diaper. The boy was then taken to the Columbus Police Department; Department of Child Services workers arrived shortly after that.

Around 5:30 p.m., the child’s grandmother, Brenda J. Fox, arrived at the police station. She said she never saw police at the playground and maintained that no one approached her about her grandchild.

Police said Fox appeared to be under the influence of a narcotic. She was taken to the Bartholomew County Jail on a preliminary felony charge of neglect of a dependent.

The child was later released into the custody of his parents, police said.